Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Thomas L. Pelissero’s Bring One Home: A Memoir of Boyhood, Basketball, and Hometown Spirit brought to life a basketball team’s multiple losses: the town’s loss of jobs, the school’s financial strife, amongst a never-ending hometown spirit. The story took place during the 1960s in the small town of Bessemer, an Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.) community. The main characters were Tom, an eight-year-old boy and narrator of the story, Coach John Bonk, and the Speedboys, a varsity basketball team. The school was faced with having to save money however possible and one way was to save electricity costs which prevented basketball players from using the gym to practice. The doors were kept locked. John Bonk was a new coach and that did not help either. One of the school budget cuts involved cutting the fifth through eighth-grade basketball teams. Many of the basketball team members were also football and baseball team players. As a result, they were physically on the basketball court but did not learn the fundamentals of the game of basketball. Winning a basketball game was definitely an uphill battle with all the problems the town of Bessemer was facing.
Two of the themes were dealing with loss and historical insight. Some of the children lost their fathers when they worked in the mines due to the poisonous fumes. The town faced multiple varsity basketball team losses. If I remember right, it was 42 losses under their belt when they finally won a game in 1966. Mines were closing which caused a job shortage. The 4th Friday count of students at the school went down considerably. They went from being a B division to a C division school. Pelissero described how the death of John F. Kennedy affected him and his family from an 8-year-old perspective. I was younger when President Kennedy died. It was interesting to learn how much things cost during the 1960s. Twenty-five cents to see a movie and ten cents for popcorn.
Tom Pelissero
I like how I learned a lot about basketball, especially when I read the last chapter and learned about the detriment of fouls. They won their first game. The cheerleaders and townspeople never failed to support their team even throughout the losing streak. I could relate to many circumstances mentioned in this book. The following also ties with historic insight, but I could certainly relate to Pelissero’s love of music. He loved the Beatles, and like many children his age, had to hear them. I loved the Monkeys and could not get enough of them. Pelissero described the winning streak the basketball team faced during the 1940s in the prologue. I could relate to the feeling of pride when the St. Ignace Saints varsity basketball team during the 1970s experienced numerous conference and district championships while I was in high school. My cousin helped the team score over 100 points on many occasions. The team is still doing well, Doug Ingalls, the coach, has led the team to multiple district titles. Many of the shops in St. Ignace posts signs wishing the Saints well. Talk about hometown spirit.
When I read this book I thought about the movie “Hoosiers” which was about a small town in Indiana. It’s a basketball movie about a new coach and underdog team who make a run for the state championship. The book that came to mind was “Panther Country: A Memoir of Youth Underdog Spirit and Basketball Glory. The memoir recounts the 1974-75 Babylon Long Island Basketball Championship under the leadership of Coach Roy Koelbel.
I recommend Bring One Home: A Memoir of Boyhood, Basketball, and Hometown Spirit for its endearing fun winter scenes, because of its small-town camaraderie, for its realistic episodes of loss and for its historical insights. Pelissero described how he went sledding with some of his friends and how freeing it felt to fly down the hill on his sled. They had to avoid bullies on the hill which made it more satisfying for them. Bessemer was a small town, and everybody appeared to know everyone. Pelissero talked to many of his fellow students, even the older ones who happened to be girls. He brought up how he did not like to talk to adults because they might ask him questions and he would not know the answers. Relationships between children, teenagers and adults have changed over the years. The author mentioned many points of interest from the costs of things to political occurrences. Pelissero provided a heartwarming underdog story while he defined his beloved hometown and its phenomenal hometown spirit.
Title: Bring One Home: A Memoir of Boyhood, Basketball, and Hometown Spirit
Author: Thomas L. Pelissero
